The trial of François Fillon entered the heart of the matter, Thursday, February 27, the effectiveness of the work of his wife Penelope, that the former Prime Minister described as "essential" and that the interested party tried to describe to the court.

For an hour and a half at the helm, Penelope Fillon explained what her job as study assistant and then parliamentary assistant consisted of between 1986 and 2013, relying on her husband for most of her answers.

The themes of the reports for which she was paid in the 1980s? "It was my husband" who decided, she said, right at the bar of the criminal court. Money? "My husband". A temporary part-time shift? "My husband" too.

>> Read: Fillon trial: the Assembly will ask for more than one million euros in damages

The one who married François Fillon in 1980 explained to have fulfilled "punctual and precise" tasks such as mail management and "small press reviews on the purely local part of the constituency so that he was aware of the events in each village, each commune. "

For her first steps in the Sarthe, this Welsh graduate of letters is paid by her husband for occasional studies with sometimes nebulous titles: "The development of the Sabolian bocage", "General studies", "Secretarial organization" ...

These reports have not been found. The corresponding employment contracts, if. "Why?" Asks the president, Nathalie Gavarino. "The reports, I gave them to my husband," says Penelope Fillon.

The latter said that she did not have an access badge to the Palais Bourbon because she "worked [t] in the constituency". She found it harder to explain a drop in wages of 30% in 1988 or the management of her paid vacation, which she did not take. "I was not in charge of the administrative details of the contract, it was my husband," she said in a small voice with a British accent.

"Coincidence" between the end of Penelope Fillon's jobs and the birth of the HATVP

Under the gaze of her husband, Penelope Fillon received the salvo of questions from the court and the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF), who seek to know if she really worked with him as a parliamentary assistant or if the Fillons hijacked more than 400,000 euros of public money between 1998 and 2002 then 2012 and 2013.

The president noted that Penelope Fillon was also, during all this time, "very involved in family management".

The two prosecutors draw a parallel between the births of the Fillon children and the first contracts of their mother, who has never asked for maternity leave. "We have the impression that as your family's financial needs increase, we find new resources through these contracts," quipped prosecutor Aurélien Létocart.

The prosecution representative also points to "a coincidence": the end of Penelope Fillon's jobs in 2013, when the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP) was born.

François Fillon, MP for Paris, had decided "to run for the presidential election", and an assistant maintaining the link with the Sarthe no longer had to be, says the defendant.

The prosecution said it saw embarrassment in the responses of the discreet wife of the former prime minister, thrown into the light by this affair.

"We are in pain for you on this side of the bar," said one of the prosecutors, however, pointing out to the defendant that she had touched her husband "nine times the minimum wage to organize the secretariat".

"Whatever decision you make, the damage is irreparable"

Then speaking, François Fillon explained that the work of his "collaborator" of wife consisted in "supervising the agenda", managing the "considerable mass" of the mail and especially "being present on the ground" in Sarthe while that her husband spent the week in Paris. "She advised me. There is not a speech in my political career that has not been reread by Penelope," he said, combative.

As for the amount of remuneration, they were decided "according to the availability of the parliamentary envelope", in compliance with the "rules of the Assembly", he defended himself.

Earlier today, in his introductory remarks to the court, François Fillon had insisted on the "irreparable damage" committed by this affair, which had broken out in January 2017, in the final stretch of the race at the Élysée where he was leaving favorite.

"I was already sentenced without appeal three years ago by a media tribunal (...) with a clear objective: to prevent me from competing under normal conditions in the presidential election," said the former chief. of the government, now 65 years old and removed from political life. "Whatever decision you make, the damage is irreparable," he continued, referring in particular to "the current of thought" that it represents.

"There remains my honor, that of my wife and that of Marc Joulaud. It is this honor that we will defend," he added, "emphasizing the" essential work "accomplished by his wife in his service and that of his deputy in the National Assembly.

François Fillon is notably prosecuted for embezzlement of public funds, a charge for which he risks 10 years of imprisonment and heavy fines. His wife is tried for complicity and concealment of embezzlement of public funds and concealment of abuse of social property. Marc Joulaud is being prosecuted for embezzlement of public funds.

With AFP and Reuters

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